Making my M3 MacBook Air FASTER than M3 14" Pro!
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- Опубліковано 14 тра 2024
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![How much RAM do you ACTUALLY need in your M3 Macbook? [2024]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9A3pp0qXpjw/mqdefault.jpg)
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You really need to put a disclaimer in these videos. If you look at the comment section you will notice that some people are angry at Apple for not installing thermal pads in the Macbook Air. Please explain in the video that Apple are not a bunch of clowns, and that they isolate the processor from the top and bottom case on purpose, to protect their users from burning themselves, as other computer manufacturers do as well. I have done this thermal pads mod 2 years and a half ago on my M1 Macbook Air. I have also done something similar a few weeks ago on my 2017 12 inch Macbook. I take full responsibility for this, and I know what I'm doing, as you are, but the truth is that both devices have become unsafe to use. I'm getting around 65°C (149°F) under the Macbook Air at full load after a while, and up to 70°C (158°F) under the 12 inch Macbook using Xcode and running an iPhone simulator. You have to be clear about the fact that Apple is doing the right thing, and that modding the Macbooks with thermal pads can be amazing, but carries some risks.
Can you please check and let us know how hot the bottom chassis gets with the thermal pads.
For the average user it is more than enough
I will be interesting to take a look on similar update for macbook pro 14 with m3 max.
@MaxTechOfficial - any chance you guys could do a video on the adoption of Macs in the 3D market (both CAD & Creative Design)? Apple has struggled here in recent years but Apple Silicon Macs have made great strides in the last year with stacks of ports (ARM+Metal but MetalRT?) and the intro of Vision Pro seems to be piquing the 3D community's interest.
There are some UA-camrs trying this but they're less thorough/consistent than you guys and there's lots of detail missing.
Just a thought that, when product releases slow down, you could dig into the App communities.
Has anyone noticed that the cooling dock is $279? This is not a cheap solution!
Basic laptop cooler is $20. I bought one to use w my 2018 MBP bc World of Warcraft would get too hot. The M3 Pro 14” isn’t as bad w the heat but I still use it when I’m playing WoW. Nothing else needs it tho
Knock $200 off that then, maybe.
Just get the thermo pad and a cheap cooler would do about the same
I mean you bought apple🤷🏻♂️what is $279?
@@brosplit way too much when $20 accomplished the same goal
I just keep mine in the refrigerator. Seems to help out a lot.
you carry that frige with you when travel? Damn, bro that's very heavy !!!
@@SeviersKain It's a mini fridge. Not as heavy as the Jackery battery pack he carries to keep it running.
So you enter in the fridge to use your MBA ? does the light switch off when you close the door ?
You are all making me laugh 😆
Damn this cooler is $250+. Might as well get Macbook Pro since that will close the gap on the price difference for 16GB/512GB.
Also in that price m3 pro is worth much better or m2 pro macbook pro (if available in your country) with better performance
And get a better screen, better speakers, more ports, bigger battery.....
And you can open the laptop..... this is pointless you might as well get a mac mini if you can't use the screen or keyboard and get a cheap air for travel.
must you buy it cant u just mill one or screw one together
He addresses this right in the video: the Air is thinner and lighter while traveling, then you can drop it on a cooling dock while at your desk. For a lot of people, this is a great solution. Signed, a person with both an Air and M1 Max Pro who prefers the Air.
I put a magnet on my the side of the palm rest, the Mac thinks it's closed, so it cools down better.
Great tip! Thank you!
Remember not to close the screen while its still there
Did not work on my mbp 16 2019. I remember they have screen angle detection as well? could you send a link of your magnet?
I don't know about the M2/M3, but the M1 MacBook Air requires two magnets to trick it. The hall effect sensors seem to be hidden in the speaker grilles, at the bottom corner of the shift keys.
My 2015 MacBook Pro only needed one magnet to trick it.
idk if a magnet can destroy some of the electronics so. I know there is no hdd, but...
This is exactly what I did before i watched this video, add the thermal pads to my M2 Macbook Air. However, there was a concern about battery health because now the entire lower case of the macbook air gets warm from the thermal transfer, and the case will warm up the macbook air battery. Any temperature above 53 Celcius is bad for the battery. My solution was to tape the inside of the macbook air back cover with thermal protective film so that the cover does not transfer the heat back to the battery locations. I managed to keep the battery temperature at or lower than 53 celcius, while still keeping the benefits of the thermal pads. I also put my m2 macbook air on top of a laptop cooler that uses a fan to cool the macbook air, thus achieving what this video also achieved.
Great idea! Thanks for sharing.
Any references for this thermal protective film or insulator material? Are you talking about the golden fiberglass tape to wrap around engine pipes? Or something with more insulation?
+1 to @@WilloPax’s question. Curious what you used for the protective film. Was it kapton tape?
Could you share a step by step guide for this? or some youtube video you might think could be useful, showing how this can be done?
Thank you
@@alvesricardo Search MaxTechOfficial/this channel for the video that shows you exactly how to do this. That's the one I used to learn how to do it. Luke Miami's channel also has a video on how to install the thermal pads. Those 2 videos are very good, but there are other videos, too.
To most of the average users, if you only need M2/M3 Air for study, browsing, watching content and other stuff not involving heavy load on graphics, which majority% people will do, you won’t need to worry about thermals.
I use my M3 Air for music production too with studying and all other normal stuff, haven’t faced issues.
i got the m1 pro 14", while playing league of legends fans, coding using docker, fans even never turned on ... :D
You can make one of these for like $25. Get yourself an old intel pentium CPU heat sink. These are basically just machined blocks of aluminum with fins. If you want a fan, you have the extra bonus of these being able to mount fans directly on them. Otherwise you can go completely fanless, or even get something like a Dell Dimension heat sink (used in fanless systems) which is literally just a machined block of aluminum. $10 plus shipping.
Grab yourself an extra thermal pad to put between it and the mac book air. $10-15.
Place thermal pad on aluminum heatsink. Place macbook on top of thermal pad. Elevate macbook with something so that it rests level with cooling block. Success.
Thanks for the idea. I am currently waiting for my base model M3 to arrive, and have some old heatsinks stashed in my workshop (I have kept them around since the late 90s thinking they might be good for something...) Some are large blocks and others are quite low-profile (removed from motherboard chipsets). They have the footprint of a small matchbox and around half the height. I think I might make use of them in this fashion lol
Well done dude!🎉
thankyou for releasing youtube vids everyday or so coz it stops me being bored with nothing to do heheh
Perfect! Glad to see you make this video!
The only thing I’d say is that the cooler block might not be realistic for many budget conscious MacBook Air buyers, because of the price. You should try that $20 laptop cooler stand or the Razer Phone Cooler peltier fan, and see what it can do!
Great research, awesome product! Thank you!
This is a great tip / suggestion, thank you for making this video!
been doing this also to non-fanless macbooks for years to improve thermals and then performance dramatically
Great video! I got MBA M3 24GB 1TB Midnight, my first Mac. In this configuration is faster than my desktop (i9 9900k), this should be more than enough for a such slim/compact machine. I like the thermal pads idea. Thanks.
Thinking of getting the same how is the heat issue
Thinking of getting the same how is the heat issue
@@haggaikathewela8910 Yes I wouldn't get the MBA with high specs because we all ready know without a way to cool, it's not going to perform well. Essentially wasted performance for one reason only, "heat."
It's not just a video about MBA. It's a brilliant idea. Thank you so much.
the SVALT Cooling block alone is US$280!!!! not including fan , not inculding thermal pads , might as well spend the money to upgrade to 14inch pro , which hv better sound better screen better everything, so this video is not objective
This is SOOOOO DUMB, the mba is so lovely and small and slim and light, let’s add a literal brick to my bag to cool the thing which we know is a light duty chassis. If you worry about thermals, Max shows us what fans and air management can do. As an alternative he offers this clunky nonsense? Crazy Max.
I returned to Best Buy the 15” MBA M3 16/512 without even open it because while on transit with FedEx I saw the 14” MBP M3 16/1TB for $1849 at Best Buy as well. So ordered it immediately and it’s going to be delivered tomorrow. A 15” MBA M3 16/1TB would have been $1899…
Really great hook with a thermal pad and a fan. A very useful trick! Thanks!
Great video and advice! Thank you!
oh, I've never expected the results You presented, thank you!
Your videos are quite informative 🫡🫡love to watch your videos❤❤
Can you make a video comparing all the existing airpods and also apple wired type c earpods all together?
I'm a game developer who regularly works on large projects that demand both the GPU for testing the game in simulators and the CPU to build projects in Unity, Xcode, and Android Studio. My MacBook Air M3 was suffering a lot due to throttling, often reaching more than 95 degrees Celsius. This modification made my top temperature go down to 86 degrees Celsius. The MacBook is running approximately 11 degrees Celsius cooler on average. The batteries never reached more than 41 degrees Celsius in the worst-case scenario. I totally agree that this modification is not something you should consider if you are not a heavy user. But if you do use heavy tasks like video encoding, game development, or building projects, you will get way more out of your hardware by doing it. Additionally, it cools down much faster when I finish heavy tasks. It used to take forever to bring it below 80 degrees Celsius; now it's almost instantaneous. Thanks for the tip. I just used only one thermal pad as recomended in the video description. Thanks for the video.
@CharlesBarros what a does a game developer do with MacBook Air M3 to perform simulation? This is the wrong tool for your line of work. Get a MacMini and call it a day. A MacBook Air are for web browser-type people.
@@Traumatree I have a regular desktop for work at my house, but I'm also a businessperson who has to travel a lot. During my travels, my tool of choice is the MacBook Air because it is lightweight and handles my development needs very well.
that is very impressive, with just thermal pads it really help it and now I'm for sure getting a MacBook Air, I will of course get the upgraded 10 Core GPU, RAM and storage.
This is a pretty cool solution (ha, get it?)
Very creative. Though of course one thing to keep in mind if you're considering this option is that you won't get that macbook pro performance on the go. That being said, great if you're leaving your sustained workload tasks for when you're at home or at your office.
Another thing to keep in mind that I think is brushed over in the video, is battery health. It's all fine when you're on the cooling dock, but when using it day to day, that thermal pad will transfer heat to the chassis and down to the battery.
Hey man. Thanks for all the incredible videos over the years!!! Which audio monitor do you use on the desktop?
I'd like to see a video that's also comparing the 24gb RAM model too, I haven't seen such yet
Same :)
yep. I'm so curious. 24gb vs the 16, and 24gb vs the M3pro MBP 18gb
Thank you so much for this comparison. I am blind so the fan way is much easier for me. Going to definitely get one of these I’m planning to get a fully specked out MacBook Air so the fan way is definitely way easy thank you so much. Keep up the good work.
When I had a Mac Air M1, it would always throttle. All I did was to get a laptop fan (laptop sitting on top with two large fans under it with a riser to get air flow. Worked for a long time too until I went to get a 16gb model and I opted for the Pro to get a built in fan. Works with the lid closed and even with a case on
Thats actually awesome that you can have a thin, light fanless Macbook Air on the go, dock it on a heatsink ater installing thermal pads at home, and have it faster than a MacBook Pro. Love it!
Don't install heat pads. They have the potential to harm your body and other parts of your computer. They are only for people who know exactly what they are doing. They will also void your warranty.
I don't think a lot of people understand how awesome it is to have something so powerful and so light. Having to actively cool it at home is a small compromise in my view.
Almost $300 for a heatsink is equally ridiculous.. 😅
I honestly think you guys won the silicon lottery with the m3 air, because even with bursty tasks it was faster than the pro of the same spec
Maybe apple thinks lethal only a crazy person would buy a bulky pro with slow chip, so they don’t put good silicon there anyway?
Or TSMC have made improvements with their 3nm node?
hello do you make another ram comparison video for the macbook air 15", whether an upgrade to 24 Gb is worthwhile or 16Gb is enough. That would be great, thanks
16 is prob enough - only if you are heavy user this might be interesting
The question I have is by closing the air gap are you going to increase the possibly of damage to the logic board from light drops.
Is the Macbook Pro getting significantly better with the external fan ?
Did pads on a 3090 a few months ago, so that looks easy. Might be time to grab one.
PSA: Use 1.0mm thermal pads. 1.5 imm is almost too thick, It makes screwing back the lid very difficult and almost buldges the bottom of the MBA.
is it good now, what about the battery temp?
I haven’t seen a single reviewer call out some of the limitations on the M3 Air’s inability to push certain resolutions. The scaling options on a 5k display are far inferior to what’s offered by the MBP and not one person has mentioned it in a review
I would love to hear more about this.
They have Pro models for 5k tho?
This is a non issue and not a thing. “Default” resolution is still 2560x1440 hidpi which is standard. Even the pros don’t allow actual 5k resolution only up to 3k in stock “more space” I’m not sure what you’re talking about here. They do exactly the same.
@@InsaneFilms I haven’t tested out multiple external displays (mostly bc I don’t care that much and I don’t get paid to do this stuff), but on my main display (40” Dell 5k/2k), there are many more hi res options when using my M3 Max MBP vs my M3 MBA.
If I force the usual resolution I use with my MBP through a 3rd party app (bc it’s not available as an option natively through Mac OS), it is low res and looks like trash.
So the only options are a resolution where everything is too large and not what I like or full resolution which is way too small and also not useable.
@@Wonder_Wicks I’m talking about pushing to an external display
Best channel to keep track of MAC systems ❤
Hi Max Tech, is the 1mm thermal pad recommended for the 15" M3 MB Air as well? or the 1.5mm would be better. In the video you showed the 1.5mm version? But in your description you recommended the 1mm version? Thanks.
This is gold!
I did this thermal pad trick to my M1, and its still going hard, if you cant handle the heat of the casing after this mod, I say harden up tender foot :)
Excellent, good work.
How are the bottom panel surface temps with the thermal pad mod? Still usable on your lap? Or is it a desk only kind of laptop after the mod?
My m2 MacBook Air 15 inch gets uncomfortably hot when the MacBook is under loud and the m3 is hotter then m2 and with a thermal pad will be even worse so it would be uncomfortable for heavy loads but fine for light to medium intensity tasks like web browsing or photo editing.
You know this may seem odd but getting a color like Silver can help overheating in outdoor conditions as the color doesn't absorb a bunch of sunlight and is the metal's natural color to begin with.
You might have added the thermal cam shots of the backplate, when stressing the CPU with and without the pads. I believe it would be very informative for prospective implementers of the hack.
I did an experiment. I did both Heaven benchmark and then Cinebench on my Mac M3 Air. I ran the benchmarks "stock" (no mods). Then I ran them with a laptop cooler (the type you set your laptop on with fans in it). Not much changed. However, I have an aluminum heat sink that I set on the laptop cooler and then the Mac Air M3 on top of that. The heat sink covers approximately 40% or so of the bottom of the laptop. I set it so that the sink contacted the bottom-rear of the system (where the processor makes the case very hot under stress). Shockingly, I got about 20 - 30% improvement in performance. I did this a few times to ensure it was "real". No mods, no opening the case, just setting the laptop on a heat sink and on a laptop cooling pad. Figured I would share, as it is WAY cheaper than the solution here. The heat sink is about $19 on Amazon and the cooling pad is about $30 on Amazon.
could you share the link for the heatsink? thanks!
Is there a heat block solution for an open Macbook Air?
Very cool video and idea. Best of both worlds - power when docked and portable on the go. I just need to find an affordable heat block
Also curious what the impact of just using an external fan would be.
Very interesting demonstration. I stopped using laptop coolers as I found that the more recent laptops from Apple (last 10 years) weren’t getting much improvement in performance from external fans. Just lifting the laptop off the desk on a cheap stand was enough for a 10% improvement for long sessions, external fans sometimes seemed to interfere with Apple’s internal cooling design. I would see temperatures slightly higher with the fans running! Using a closed laptop seemed unproductive and a good way to shorten the laptop’s lifespan, so I never did it. This changes my mind a little for future purchases.
You forgot to mention : $279 for Svalt's cooling dock. Might as well upgrade to the MBP really
While I think the $279 is way too high, at least it’ll help cool all your laptops now and future laptops in the future. That extra $ for the MBP will only help now.
@@hypocritetrollbot7729 that is probably only justification. Or we can wait and see if it wont sell and goes cheaper :) or wait for chinese knock off.
I would still rather have the macbook air to use on a table top on the go and full performance at home in one of these docks. macbook pro is a chonky heavy laptop.
I know this took some time to accomplish.
Mad respect for you and your team. This is amazing to see. Maybe a MacBook Air is the way to go? 😅😮😅
Great video. What are your thoughts on improving the performance (without a relevant comparator (i.e. an air) for a Max M3 16 with the thermal pads, and perhaps a heat block?
That cooling block looks interesting. Maybe couple it with some silent noctua fans? Would be interesting to see if you could push the M3 Max more with that thing. Maybe I need to test that....
i put thermal pads in my 2020 m1 macbook air and have never had issues with anything over heating. i dont do any crazy heavy workloads mind you but even when benchmarking it to see how it performs i never had any issues.
gotta say… well done guys. .. very well done.
$290 for cooling???? why not just buy a macbook pro at this point ?
Versatility. He talks about this. You can take the much lighter Air or set it up at a desk for heavy tasks. IMO a great tradeoff.
Does make you wonder how an MBA would perform on a $25 active laptop cooler… or even sitting on a $10 granite tile cut to fit between the feet so it’s in contact with the base
It also makes me wonder at how far they could push the M3 in a well cooled mac mini or a mac studio.
Amazing. thanks!
I want to know what's the performance like for a MacBook Pro with thermal pads.
It does not improve the performance at all, because the heat is already evacuated by the fan. The thermal pads mod only makes sense on fanless designs. I have done it on my M1 Macbook Air, and recently on my 2017 12 inch Macbook with good success, but it is important to note that the temperatures on the bottom cases of both devices are now unsafe, which explains why Apple does not do it.
So its better not to do it?! But what exactly u mean with unsafe? i am afraid of the battery or to effect some other electronics inside. if this would be the ultimate solution apple would prob. have done it.@@fixups6536
I like your Tardis-like studio wall, I expect it will dampen noise reflections too.
Yes it actually has sound dampening foam on the back of it.
*Why doesn't Apple add the thermal pads as standard?*
Same reason that they don't put an actual heatzink, they don't want the machine to be as fast as it can be, this is how they throttle the machine
cause the laptops would get to hot to the touch for regulation.
Their excuse is that the bottom of the laptop would get uncomfortably hot if it was directly touching the heatsink and spreading the heat. Also, they focus the Air to consumers that don't need constant performance.
@@robertoacjit’s not an “excuse” there’s consumer electronics regulations that state how hot something can be that will come into contact with skin. It’s not for the lolz 😂
Easy explanation is many times, the truth.. well you guessed it right..;)
In the past I’ve use a laptop cooling pad made of aluminum and placed a small piece of thermal pad between the laptop and cooling pad. Will try with the M3 and see how it goes.
Wow, this video is very eye opening. I'll definitely install a cooling solution if I get an Air. I'm curious to know how the performance is when using both the Air and Pro open while connected to an external display. In my case I have an ultra widescreen monitor connected via a Thunderbolt port, which also charges the laptop.
So let me get this straight:
1. Get a 1300€ MacBook Air M3
2. Get a cooling block that costs 300€(not even premium liquid coolers cost that much btw. Let’s not talk about a piece of metal)
3. Void the warranty on a brand new machine to install thermal pads
4. Not run a single test to see temps on other components of the MacBook that may get affected by the installation of the thermal pads such as battery that has a pretty low operating temperature as you came to realise after the same thing you did back with the m2 MacBook Air (and you still suggest the same thing)
All these and you sound pretty excited about the results as it is the best choice for someone that wants a stable machine. I might as well get my 2018 desktop and oc it with liquid nitrogen that will surely boost its performance. Not all options are viable you should know that
This is so dumb, the obvious answer is get a pro chassis with fans. I did, the 14” M3 12core can run on my comforter on my bed, never turn the fan on, never get so hot it fries my skin, in fact it’s never even warm from light work. My i9 16” mbp had to be on a tray which allowed the chassis to have airflow otherwise it starts to fry on any fabric surface you’d use it on like a couch or bed. I love this aspect most about the current gen MBP and Apple chipsets and their performance and efficiency. The HDR screen also truly unlocks your HDR camera if you’re a film maker or photographer something which just never happens on machines with an SDR display like the mba. The pro is a really nice machine, those ports are rad too.
i'm surprised so few people are talking about this, and all that on top of now the laptop is uncomfortable to use as a laptop because the bottom of the case will get to scorching temperatures. So basically spent 1600 to get a louder, less efficient, and larger m3 mac mini with less functionality.
@@zatorith. Under normal /casual use the laptop doesn't heats up. Unless you are doing 20+ minute renders on your lap, it will otherwise behave like a normal macbook air. If you are doing 20+ minute renders on your lap, you've got bigger issues.
The thermal pads are less than $20 and give you about 75% of the thermal benefits… just do that and save the $280.
Would you get any benefit to use it on a M1 MacBook Pro for the thermo pads thanks.
I watched this video because coming from MaxTech it couldn't be a clickbait title !
And oh man I'm impressed. Great work of investigations as always.
The only thing is that Apple could cancel the warranty because on those thermal pads.
Great video! The reason I am replacing my 14" Macbook Pro with a 15" Macbook Air is simple - the screen is bigger with no weight penalty. For editing video and graphics work a 14" laptop is too small, and the 16" Macbook Pro is too expensive. Thermal pads are a cheap fix but probably void the warranty - the cooling block is crazy expensive but is silent, which I want for audio editing.
You can turn off the built-in screen without closing the laptop. I use betterdisplay to achieve this
Hi, if I may, I would like to ask for help.
I am using a Mac Studio M1 Max / 64 GB RAM for ArchiCAD (3D CAD design, among other things). I wonder if the current computers with M3 processor, even MacBook AIR , would not be better for this task? Especially with the additional cooling system you showed ;)
What do you think?
This is interesting thanks for producing this. Do these pads need to be replaced after some time? Also, any safety issues with the pads such as them degrading over time? Lastly, would this void the warranty? If you could next time running this (amazing) set of tests, please address these questions also that would be awesome.
Yes, it will void your warranty. Yes, there are definite safety issues. I would not do it unless you are a total computer nerd. MaxTech are doing this for videos and because they know what they are doing. They are absolutely not the answer for normal users. There are other cooling options that don't cause potential harm to not just your body but also the battery and possibly other parts of the computer.
Hey Max, I just wanted to report my own test: I got the 1.5mm thermal pad (exactly the one you got) and placed it directly above the M3, another 1mm one I placed half/half left and right of the 1.5mm one. I placed the Macbook on a dedicated laptop-stand, like I usually do at home (open), and my multi-core score in Cinebench is: 678 (and I had a lot of stuff opened while running Cinebench). I'm really impressed. But I have to say these pads are a bit weird to work with. I had to really fight them to get off the clear plastic side and torn some junks from it while doing so, but at the end I was able to squish everything together into a homogeneous pad. :)
I would love to see the same test conducted on the MacBook Pro 14” since it also suffers from thermal throttling as compared to the 16” model.
I can't find the link to the Thermal Pad in the comments, would you be able to share the link, the thickness and if we need 1 or 2? Thank you.
Seems like he is using 1.5mm ones
Thank you.. 1 or 2 pieces of the 85mmx 45mm?
Be careful. the heat pads are for very specialized use cases. They will cause the bottom of the computer to become extremely hot and cause injury to your person. It may also cause issues with the battery by exposing it to temps that are above the safety limits.
@@recline69 Did you not watch the video where he addressed this concern?
What will be the result if i just use a 25 usd usb fan? Wouldn’t that solve the problem?
Nice. Wow. Can't wait to see what a M3 Studio Ultra will be performing like. What do you all recommend if you want to keep the MacBook Air cool when NOT in clamshell mode, Max?
Ken Whitaker (aka SoftwareManiac)
if you want more power buy a pro; don't mess up your machine and void the warranty with heatpads ; the heatblock is pretty cool though but not for 279 usd
I have had my M2 air 256gb 16gb ram for over 1 year best Mac I have ever had. only do light use on it
With 512Gb is better
Just curious, why get a such nice machine to just do "light use"?
Thanks for the video. Could you also test thermal pads + desktop cooling pad (fans for working with the laptop opened)? You just tested a cooling system for closed lid, could you test a system for cooling with the laptop open please? Cheers :)
Just set the MacBook Pro on custom fan curve or max it out. Use a fan control app. I do this all the time when I’m rendering.
Pretty cool, now test low power mode please. Battery life too.
I mean, what you're doing is using the chassis of the Macbook Air to dump heat into, whereas before there was an air gap. I think the only issue would be if you end up using it in your lap, the chassis will get a lot warmer.
Doesn’t adding thermal pad ruin warranty? What’s it like just with the fan sink thingy?
He covered that in the video. With it even without the fan, it drastically reduces the air from throttling. Only downside it cost like 300 dollars.
What is the name of this system monitoring application? I would like to use it on my Mac...
Very helpful video. Looks like if I do desktop work far more than laptop mode work it would make more sense to have a Mac Mini M3 Pro with iPad Pro rather than a Macbook Pro M3 Pro with iPad Pro. Even more valid argument for an iPad Pro M3 with complete MacOS capability.
Did you guys measure how hot the bottom gets with thermal pads?
It would be nice to have a resource to check the ideal thermal pad measurements according to every type of device.
Great tests and very interesting!
Apple should use that solution inside the MacBook Air to avoid it heating up and also to improve its performance.
I hope Apple’s team watch you… They should be informed about those solutions!😮
What are you talking about? Apple isolates the processor from the bottom case on purpose, because if they didn't people would burn themselves with their computers. I have done the thermal pads mod on my M1 Macbook Air a few months ago, and I can assure you that it gets dangerously hot under the computer with this mod. It would be absolutely irresponsible for Apple NOT to isolate the processor. Where does this idea that they are just a bunch of clowns come from? They are doing the right thing, and you can do the mod if you want, but then you take full responsibility for it, that's how it should be.
Ppl are harping on the cooler for being expensive. But having worked with small design machine shops, its expensive to make something like this.
Also, it would probably be beneficial to the Macbook Pro too as my fan would get LOUD especially in clamshell mode.
Could you make a video showcasing the other m series air models?
When I will buy this little beast, I will not forget to donate to your channel. Your tips are multi-dollar save.
test these set ups on the MacBook Pros as well!!
One question I have is what effect does low RAM have on MacBook Air M3 thermals? If so, how does it compare with your experiments with thermal pads and heat sinks?
To be noted - the upgrade is NOT free performance lying on the table - using the Thermal pads allow more heat to be dissipated to the chassis, which true, helps with cooling of the CPU, but it also makes the whole chassis hotter - which may cause issues when you want to use the laptop on your legs or on a soft surface - sometime ago, I think it was LTT who measured it, and the chassis was hotter than the legal US limits and may cause burns.
The cooling block then obviously limit the moveability - cooling pads or stands have been quite standard for a while now, even for other laptops, this one looks cool though and its mass allow it to be used even without fan, which is nice for silence.
But in both cases, you are making your Air less functional as a laptop, but more powerful computer overall. For some, this might be a worthy tradeoff.
Personally, I'd go without the thermal pads but with the cooling block. That way you can easily take the laptop off of it and use it safely wherever, albeit with the thermal nerf.
No one is going to be doing intensive 15m+ import/exports on their lap, which would get uncomfortably hot anyway thermal pads or not. The svalte is nice in terms of aesthetics and space-saving but any cheap laptop cooler will suffice in combination with the thermal pads.
Would love to see these products tested with a maxed out M3 Max MBP 💻
Please do a review on the MacBook M3 Air vs MacBook M1 Air
These thermal pads will dissipate heat to the bottom case. Then opened the heat will be trapped on the desk and lead to swollen battery due to heat build up.
Not happening. I have modded my M1 Macbook Air with thermal pads 2 years and a half ago, and the battery is only marginally hotter under extended periods of full load (I did test it). You are right that it could happen in theory, but in practice, from my experience, it doesn't. Also, someone else in this comment section has explained that they use thermal protective film between the bottom case and the battery to further protect it, which is something that I may try some day.
Do you think this would work with Intel-based MacBook Pros as well?
Which thermal pad thickness is good for a 15" M2 Air?
Will this work with the M2 Air?
I guess a simple desk fan would do the same job..